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Arvind Kejriwal - Cough and Jan Lokpal - Politically Incorrect
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Arvind Kejriwal - Cough and Jan Lokpal - Politically Incorrect - Video

He is brash, politically incorrect and, until today, the face of a globally acclaimed British TV program called Top Gear all about cars and the antics of its host, Jeremy Clarkson.

But branding and marketing experts agree that the BBC had no choice but to dump its biggest star despite his own strong brand recognition and the set-back it could cause the popular Top Gear program. Facing its own Ghomeshi-like moment, the BBC decided Mr. Clarkson had become too toxic and a brand liability.

Reuters Mar. 25 2015, 12:37 PM EDT

The weekly program draws 5-million domestic viewers and, through rebroadcasts around the world, an estimated global audience of 350 million. The show was one of the BBCs most successful exports generating annual revenue of $93-million.

But today the British Broadcasting Corporation cut him loose. The BBC said that Mr. Clarkson had crossed a line and that his contract would not be renewed following an investigation in to a fracas earlier this month after a day of filming. British media reported that an altercation happened when the TV star discovered that the hotel where the Top Gear team was staying had stopped serving hot food for the day.

According to the BBC investigation, Mr. Clarkson had unleashed a verbal tirade lasting 20 minutes followed by a 30-second physical assault on a producer. The assault resulted in swelling and a bloodied lip and sent the producer to the emergency department of a hospital in northern England.

The demise of Jeremy Clarkson sparked a social media backlash as fans of the show including many here in Canada criticized the BBC for its decision. Top Gear and its main host are so intertwined that fans could not imagine the show without him.

But the case also highlights the difficulties all organizations like the BBC face when trying to protect their reputation and whether to hold on to a key part of their brand or let it go.

Branding and workplace experts agreed that the BBC was left little choice.

There is more than one brand

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BBC had to dump Clarkson brand to protect its own, experts agree

By ROGER MOORE Tribune News Service

It's a "Trading Places" variation, with Ferrell as James, a top dollar fund manager busted by the Feds and set to go to prison. So he turns to someone for help in acquiring survival skills for "inside," to "Get Hard" enough to not be killed. How'd he pick Darnell, the small businessman from South Central who runs a car wash service?

"I was being black," Darnell (Hart) tells his wife (Edwina Findley Dickerson).

Ferrell and his team of writers play around with this familiar salt-and-pepper combo to expose the arrogant, prissy 1 percenter/Harvard Business School alum to African-American culture and his prejudices about it. Hip hop, Lil Wayne wardrobe, trash talk and slang, James studies up. Not that he learns to see past his prejudices, any more than the film does.

The joke about Darnell is that he's anything but "hard." He's a doting daddy with no police record. But he takes a big chunk of cash from James to school him, converts the man's Bel Air mansion into a version of San Quentin and fakes his way through how to eat, carry yourself, defend yourself and how to act in "The Yard." That involves Hart imitating black thugs, Chicano prison gangsters and Yard queens.

Darnell takes a few tips from his genuinely hard Crenshaw cousin (T.I.), toys with James' Afro-phobia and their shared homophobia in the training. "Get Hard" minces into places it shouldn't in the process.

But that's largely the point here -- crossing lines no one else still crosses. Gay pick-up practice, gang initiation is spoofed (clumsily), a racist white gang mocked and confronted. Generally, this movie doesn't so much invert stereotypes as embrace them. Very retro.

It's hit or miss material, with Ferrell playing it stiff and goofy and Hart straight-jacketed into a character that is rarely top drawer Kevin Hart funny. One gag that works: the Hispanic servants at James' mansion giddily get into playing fellow inmates who torment their insufferable, super rich boss. One "lights out" riot (strobed) is a hoot.

Craig T. Nelson is the too-obvious villain, but John Mayer scores as a self-aware/self-mocking version of his lady killer image.

Ferrell is as fearless as ever, stripping down and looking foolish, willing to be out-of-touch and out-of-step. Hart has his manic moments.

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Salt and pepper don't mix for laughs